Cat's Christmas
by fringeperson
Summary: Years have passed, and as another Christmas approaches, friends and family gather together, conspiring to make each other happy. I DO NOT OWN ANY CAT RETURNS CHARACTERSOh, and I like Christmas, so please don't go on about me being so early...
1. The First Letter

**Cat's Christmas**

**Chapter 1: The First Letter**

Father Christmas, Chris Cringle, Pere Noel, Saint Nicholas, Santa Clause, there were so many different names he answered to. By now all recognised him to be the same jolly fat man with the gleaming eyes, the flowing white beard, and often a pair of gold, half-moon spectacles sitting on his cherry nose, that it no longer mattered what they called him. All the letters reached him at his workshop in the North Pole regardless of the name on the envelope.

One letter in particular had his attention this day, with just a week until his big run, delivering stuff now more than toys. This letter had him in a grand mood, and made him feel young again, something that had not happened for well over seven hundred years.

_Dear Mister Cringle, sir,_

_For Christmas this year, I don't want anything for myself, not particularly any way, I heard Mummy talking to Daddy about getting a swing set, but that would be for everyone, not just me._

_I have an auntie, only she isn't really my auntie, I just call her that, and even when she's smiling, she seems to still be sad inside. When I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said that she what she wanted wouldn't come in a box with a bow. Mummy says auntie wants someone to love her, but I love her, only it doesn't seem to be the kind of love auntie is looking for._

_I was wondering, Mister Cringle sir, if you could find out what it is that will take the sadness out of auntie, and maybe find some way to give it to her for Christmas. That's what I would like for Christmas, please Mister Cringle._

_From Tsuge Hiroshi Junior_

The old man smiled a beaming smile and passed the letter to his wife, taking the tray of fresh biscuits from her and shifting them to a plate, ringing the bell for his elves to come and have their morning tea.

"Oh, Chris, this little boy is such a dear. We just have to try," she said, a hand over her chest as she read the letter.

"I agree Mary," he said, taking the letter back and looking it over again. Taking a brass funnel off its hook in the wall, he whistled down, "Pumpernickel," he called, getting another whistle in reply.

"What's the job boss?" the voice on the other end replied eagerly.

Smiling, a happy glint in his eye, the old man explained the situation to his best watching elf. The old song was not completely right: he did not see every child as they slept, but he had elves stationed around the globe, telling him of all that happened in the world beyond the workshop. Soon, this auntie would have her very own elf watching over her, trying to find out what it was that she truly wanted for Christmas.


	2. The Second Letter

**Chapter 2: The Second Letter**

Toto and Muta were, for once, working together without having to be told by the Baron. In fact, they were working together for the Baron's sake, in the hopes of surprising him. It was relatively easy at the moment, as the doll was away getting his paint re-done, so that he could look his best for the festive season.

_Dear Santa,_

_We understand that at Christmas you grant wishes for those who have been good through the year,_

– "Rules you out, fatso," the bird said, reading what his partner in secrecy was writing. "I will be impressed if this Santa person can even read your writing."

"Shut it, bird brain. We aren't asking anything for _us_ after all," the fat cat snapped back, distracted from his writing. –

_Several years ago, we made the acquaintance of a girl named Haru. She was in trouble at the time, due to being too nice for her own good, and we helped her out of it._

– "What now? How do I say that we want him to reunite her and the Baron for Christmas?" Muta asked, his attempted eloquence in writing, not to mention the oversimplification of a grand adventure, making his head hurt a little with the strain.

"Here, give me the pencil, I'll try," the crow said, hopping closer. Carefully, he took the HB in his beak and started scratching at the page.

"And you call my writing bad." –

_We care very much for Miss Haru, and in the years since we said goodbye, we have been keeping an eye on her, just to make sure she is all right. She has grown into a fine woman, but when we see her, we think that her smiles aren't as genuine and happy as they should be._

_Our friend, the Baron, also misses her very much, but he won't see her. He pretends that he is letting her get on with her life, but since they said goodbye, he has not been moving on with his. Maybe he is just a figurine, but surely, he deserves happiness too?_

_It is our Christmas wish that you might find some way to unite our two friends. We have tried all sorts of things, but nothing we do or say seems to work._

_From Toto and Muta_

"Looks good," said the fat cat, reading the last part. "Now we just have to address it, and post it. I can do that on my way to the crossroads tomorrow."

Toto nodded, putting down the pencil again. Now they just had to decorate the refuge, ready for Christmas. The only part of their surprise they knew for sure would definitely happen.

-o0o-

"Mary! Mary! Come and have a look at this! It must be my birthday as well as Christmas! I think this solves it!" The jolly fat man cried, running from the letter room to his wife's stitching parlour, where she supervised the making of doll dresses.

She smiled at him when she had finished reading the letter.

"Better tell Pumpernickel to go and find this Baron fellow," she said, giving her husband a kiss on his rosy cheek.


	3. The Trouble With Life

**Chapter 3: The Trouble With Life**

"He's a doll, boss," the elf reported, standing before the jolly fat man. For the first time, the elf was worried about what the usually happy man would do. Everyone who worked for him knew that this particular Christmas wish had been his favourite from the moment he set eyes on it, and now there was a complication.

"You're certain," he said, soaking in this information as he looked at the pictures Pumpernickel had taken of both the Baron and of Tsuge Junior's auntie Haru. It was undeniable; the Baron was definitely a doll. No real person looked like that – cat face, tail, large ears holding his top had in place.

"Thank you, Pumpernickel," Mary said, resting a gentle hand on her husband's shoulder. "You've done a marvellous job, now, if you wouldn't mind…" there was a suggestion hanging there, and everyone knew it. The elf bowed apologetically and raced for the door, shutting it behind him.

The instant the latch clicked shut the bringer of joy burst into tears. It had been wonderful, just perfect, and now it wasn't as simple as it had been.

"You are being silly, Chris," she told him, patting him on the back as he made the shoulder of her red dress damp. "You can sort this out. Just because you haven't needed much magic for the past four hundred years doesn't mean you don't still have some. Come on, you old fuddy-duddy," Mary laughed quietly.

Chris Cringle brushed the tears out of his beard and looked up at his wife, the love of his eternity. Life had been too simply for him for too long, he had forgotten how much magic he could work on Christmas Eve.

"Thank you my dear," he said light coming back to his eye. "You're wonderful."

"I just love you. Now go on, if you're going to have _this_ ready for Christmas, you had best get a move on."

With care born of centuries experience, old Saint Nick stepped into the fireplace – avoiding both the mantle and the burning longs as much as he could – and tapped his nose. Leaving just a little dust behind, as well as some soot, he disappeared from the North Pole workshop, intent on another project all together.

-o0o-

Perhaps it wasn't the way things were done, but the old man had a very good reason. Somehow or other, he was going to have to magic a change in the world on Christmas Eve this year, and he wanted to be certain on the best way to do it.

Late at night he slipped into the dreams of a young woman, just watching from the sidelines, not imposing in any way, barely a breath of wind in the room, but utterly aware of everything that she felt as she dreamt.

_I've been here before… This is the Cat Kingdom… No! Paws! Oh, I don't want to be a cat! Why can't the King just get it through his thick head!_

_A voice interrupted her thoughts: "Excuse me, would you care to dance?"_

_This was why she held onto this dream, despite how very much like a nightmare it so often was. Unlike the time it had really happened, she didn't raise any objections, simply placing her paw in his gloved hand, and let him guide her._

_The room dissolved, but the dancing went on. Just the two of them in the emptiness of an un-focused dreamscape. She was aware of whiskers sprouting from her face at one point as she stared up at him, and he stopped leading her._

"_I told you, Miss Haru, believe in who you are," her dance partner said._

"_I know Baron, but when I'm with you, I forget who that is," she whispered, tears starting to form in her eyes, a scared little kitten still, though she had long become a woman. Blinking, she found herself alone, completely a cat. She woke up._

The spirit of Christmas slipped once more out of her window, leaving the woman to sigh alone, not wishing to see her cry herself to sleep over a love she believed lost. He had another's dream to visit still. He had, at first, been doubtful if the doll _did_ dream, but as he had a soul, it was more than likely that he also dreamt.

_She was so light as he ran with her in his arms. Up, up, ever up to the top of the tower. She had to make it out by dawn, she had to be human again, or he would have failed her. He didn't want to fail her._

_Upwards, ever upwards. An explosion sounded from beneath them and his heart tightened as she wrapped her arms around him, holding on desperately in fear. Still he kept on running, knowing that the exit was unbroken yet._

_The portal flew past them, sending them hurtling into the human world just as the sun began to rise. This was not how it had really happened. She was still holding tightly to him as she returned to her old self. Toto caught them on his back and flew them to the ground, that wasn't quite what had happened either, but it didn't matter._

_He felt cold when she let go of him to thank Toto for catching them. He felt small when she bent down to speak to him. He felt his heart ache when she told him how grateful she was to him for saving her from marrying a cat. That wasn't what she had really said, but faced with what she was saying now the Baron couldn't remember what it was that she _had_ said._

"_Just for the record, Miss Haru," he said softly, green eyes yearning for her to hear him as she turned away, returning to her normal life. "I want to go with you."_

"_Tell Muta that I'll miss him too, will you?" she called back, waving as she left the Bureau behind. He woke up._

The old man slipped away while the feline gentleman tried to cry the pain away.


	4. The Night In Question

**Chapter 4: The Night In Question**

He helped Mary into the sleigh while the elves organised the presents in the back and the reindeer in the front. The changeover point at the equator promised that they were ready – he traded the eight reindeer for six white kangaroos when it started to get hot then changed back for the trip home. The run would be as usual, he had decided. All the presents would be delivered as they usually were. His favourite gift, however, would be saved for last. He wanted to be able to linger over it, rather than have to rush off to make another delivery the instant it was done.

At last, he set the reindeer down in the sanctuary, the bells on the harness waking everyone – the reindeer's hooves making only a soft clatter upon the cobbled courtyard.

"Toto and Muta," he announced removing their letter from his pocket as the three friends stared at him in wonder. "Now, normally I only give Christmas wishes to those who have been good throughout the year, but you two didn't actually ask anything for yourselves," he said, looking from the crow on the pillar beside him to the cat who was as comparatively fat as he was.

"The Baron _has_ been good," Mary said, reading purposefully from the good list in the sleigh. They had this sort of planned out, and the two spirits smiled at each other. "However, I can't see a letter from him anywhere here," she added.

"Excuse me," the Baron said, breaking from his surprise-induced stupor. "But might I ask what is going on?" the cat lord queried, as politely as possible.

"Of course Baron," Santa said, kneeling down to speak to the one-and-a-half-foot-high statuette. "Your friends wrote to me, asking for your happiness this Christmas."

"But I am perfectly satisfied with my life as it is," the Baron said, touched though confused by the actions of his friends.

"Satisfied, my lad, is not the same as happy. Take this letter, for instance. A young lad wrote to me, asking that I take the sadness away from his auntie. When I sent my elf Pumpernickel to investigate, he found a perfectly content, smiling young woman who delighted in spending time with her friends. That didn't mean that she wasn't sad and lonely underneath it all," the wise old man said sombrely, brushing a few errant snowflakes off his knee.

"I understand sir," the Baron answered with bowed head, holding his top hat over his chest as he silently wished happiness to all for Christmas day.

"I know you do, lad. You're lonely as well, plain as the beard on my face. You messed up too," he said, stroking the combed white mass that flowed from his chin as his eyes twinkled with a different light at the feline.

"What? How?" Baron panicked, shocked by the towering figure's words even more than his presence.

"You kept yourself lonely because you believed that you had been forgotten. You never once tried to find out if you were remembered, so you never found out that your memory was treasured, that the thought of you left a feeling of loneliness in the heart of another. Your friends, and hers, were caring enough to alert me, and I have some magic on Christmas Eve. It's time to fix it, Baron, climb aboard."

The old man was almost angry with the Baron, but still his heart was good, his nature tender, and his words soft. He stood and waited patiently for the doll to climb into the sleigh.

The Baron hesitated a moment, afraid for only the second time in his life. The first time had been when Haru had screamed in terror, and he had feared for her life. Now he feared for his own. If he climbed aboard that sleigh, he would probably never see Toto or Muta again, but there was hope in his heart. He didn't know what the hope was for, only that he had to believe in this, because if he didn't, he wasn't sure what there was left to believe in.

He climbed aboard.


	5. Keeping It Simple

**Chapter 5: Keeping It Simple**

Haru woke to feel Tsuge Junior bouncing up and down on her stomach. Opening a bleary eye, she saw that he was wearing a Santa hat and a jumper with a Christmas tree on it. When the time came for that jumper to get a second use, she felt sure, it wouldn't fit any more.

"Wake up, Auntie Haru, wake up! Mister Cringle came and left you a present!"

Haru smiled at the boy. If she knew anything, the only reason he was bouncing on her bed was because his mother had said that there was to be no opening of presents until _everyone_ in the house was awake. That only meant that he would wake them all.

"Alright, I'm awake, you can get off me now," she said, tickling him to get her point across. When he was out of the room, Haru put on a dressing gown and followed him. There was no point in actually getting dressed until after breakfast today, no one had to be anywhere until the large Christmas lunch was spread out for everyone.

Haru was surprised to see that there was a gift for her under the tree not from Hiromi or her mother. The two families living together had come about as a bit of an accident. Haru's mother had become so busy with quilting conventions that she was hardly ever home, so Haru had invited Hiromi to live with her, staving off a greater pit of loneliness, and when her best friend had married Tsuge, they just added to the house. It was more fun with lots of people in the house, particularly when so many of them were children.

The unknown parcel had a card attached, which Haru read while she waited for everyone else to be woken up by Junior.

_So that you are never sad again, Merry Christmas._

"Well Haru, since you already have a present in your lap, why don't you go first?" Hiromi said, the last to enter the lounge room where they had set up the Christmas tree.

Haru nodded mutely, wondering what it could possibly be as she slipped her nails between the tape that held the wrapping in place. Beneath the shiny red paper and green ribbon there was a simple white box, thinner than it was long, but there were no openings to show her what was inside. Removing the lid, her brown eyes grew wide at what she saw lying there.

He smiled back at her as he lay perfectly still in the box.

"Baron," she breathed, gently lifting him off the green silk cushion he had been lying on. The same green as his eyes.

"Baron? I'm surprised you could think of a name so quickly. He's handsome, for a cat," Hiromi said, kneeling down to start handing out presents to her children.

Haru just shook her head at her friend and sat through the rest of the gift giving, keeping the Baron in her lap the whole time. He stood, stiff as a statue through the whole thing, which Haru supposed should not have surprised her, but when she ran her fingers over his ear, it was warm and soft. He was not just a statue.


	6. Merry Christmas

**Chapter 6: Merry Christmas**

She carefully placed him on a high shelf, safe from the reach of the children, and went to shower and dress, ready for the day. From her mother, Haru had received a lovely white dress, meant for a warmer time of the year perhaps, but she wasn't going anywhere and there was a fire in the fireplace, so she put it on and went to collect the Baron from the shelf.

He was still there, waiting for her.

She took him down and retreated from the enthusiastic cries of the children as they played with their new toys, avoiding the kitchen where Hiromi and Tsuge would be going on about what salads to make to serve with lunch – something they had already decided two days before.

In her study, she set him down on her desk and pulled up a seat for herself.

"It's good to see you again Baron," she said, holding her chin in her hand as her elbow rested on the edge of the desk. "I really missed you," she added without thinking, and still without thinking leant in and kissed his furred cheek.

It was definitely furred; she could feel the fur against her lips. When she drew back though, shd couldn't even see him. Light was flashing everywhere in the room, and she shut her eyes to save herself from being blinded. Haru kept her eyes tight shut, blocking out even the red that was the light shining through her eyelids.

A hand touched her cheek, brushing away the tears that had been squeezed out the corners of her eyes.

"I missed you too." He was standing beside her desk, holding both of her hands in his as he gently tugged her out of her seat. The fur was gone, but his hair was the same orange-gold it had been and his eyes were still that deep green.

She could still loose herself in those eyes. Tentatively, she reached up and ran her fingers through his hair, felt the smooth skin of his cheek. Haru drank in the sight of him as he leant into her touch.

Baron closed his eyes so that the only thing in his world was the feel of her hand on his face, until she took that hand away. Looking again at her, he worried to see her looking down, away from him. He stepped a little closer, forcing her to recognise that he really was there. "Haru –" he started, unsure what to do next.

"Kiss me before I wake up," she said desperately, tears in her brown eyes as she looked up at him.

"It isn't a dream," Baron said, his hands resting on her shoulders.

"Kiss me anyway," Haru's words were soft, almost frightened. She couldn't bear to take her eyes from his face, until she felt his lips against hers, and the brown orbs slipped shut. She felt him wrap his arms around her waist, and she slipped her own around his neck. He pulled her closer to him, though neither of them realised he was doing it, and without even breaking the kiss, he lifted her off the ground and swung her around him.

"Haru, will you marry me?" he asked when he put her down again, breaking the kiss at last.

"Promise I'm not dreaming?" she answered, smiling as she rested against his chest.

**The End**


End file.
